This invention relates to a driving apparatus for an object which can be reciprocated between an opening and a closing position, such as the closing of a building or terrain in the form of a onepart or multipart gate wing, also a sliding gate wing (frequently crossbarred), shutter, weather shield or the like, especially a gate wing which is movable overhead, comprising a guide block which is motordriven along a guide rail and to which the said object (gate wing) is coupled, a manually operated locking mechanism being provided between a driving member moved by a driving motor along the guide rail and the said object (gate wing) with the aid of which the object (gate wing) can be coupled to and uncoupled from the driving member, for example, upon failure of the driving motor, and which comprises a coupling member movable along the guide rail and, in the coupled state, drivingly engaging the said driving member, particularly by form closure, the coupling member being embedded in a guide groove of the guide block approximately vertically to the direction of motion thereof so as to be slidable under the force of spring means between a coupling position and an uncoupling position, the spring force of the spring means acting on the coupling member towards the coupling position.
Manually operated locking systems of this type are known, for example, from the DE-PS 35 24 361 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,980. Here, however, the mechanical structure, i.e. number and/or intricacy of the components with view to their shape and manoeuvrability when being assembled as well as safe operation are not satisfying in every respect.
In the first line, this locking mechanism is to manually interrupt the connection from a motor driving unit to an object (gate wing), for instance upon failure of the driving system. In addition, within the scope of the first-mentioned German patent specification there is made sure that any uncoupling between the driving system and the object is possible only under certain conditions, avoiding danger caused by the uncoupling of the object and the driving system which--like in the present application--is explained with a gate wing. Because, when the weight balancing system of the gate wing fails to work the driving system which then alone supports the gate wing must not be separable from the gate wing. This aspect can be taken into consideration also within the scope of the subject of the present application which, however, is not necessary.